I don't want to wake up one morning in October to find out that Gaybo has won the Presidential election.

First of all I want to vote for a Fianna Fail candidate in the upcoming Presidential election. However i will simply not vote for a candidate just because he has the party crest after his/her name. I'm no party troll, the candidate and how closely aligned a person is to my political philosophy determines whether or not i'll vote for a particular individual. I've been a member of the party since i entered University College Dublin five years ago, joining the youth wing, Ogra Fianna Fail. I attended and participated in numerous meetings, and during the last general election i canvassed on behalf of two decent Fianna Fail politicians, both of whom sadly lost their seats. Now our party finds itself  with a predicament. It's whether to bypass this Presidential election altogether, not run a candidate risk becoming possibly irrelevant, possibly supporting an Independent such as Sean Gallaher, or deciding to choose our own candidate. I've been grappling with the idea of whether we should run a candidate or not, the determinate factor at least for me would be is how we'd be likely to do in the polls. If the next poll our two shows that we'd attract around 16% of the vote, i'd ask myself wouldn't we just be wasting our resources and time. However i'd be much more inclined to support a Fianna Fail candidate if were likely to attract around 19%, i think we'd be in with a shout of doing quite well.  However  what i will not do is vote for a celebrity has-been chat show host, with no links to the party at all! I'm sure his recent eurosceptic rant would surely have turned some heads within our party too. The question has to be asked, why should we not grant a hard working actual member of our party the opportunity to run instead? Brian Crowley is a determined, dedicated MEP from Cork, has cross party appeal, and i'm quite certain he'd be much easier to handle then Gay Byrne, who does not seem to like taking advice. I'm certain too in upcoming Presidential debates Crowley would do much better . Sometimes it helps to actually have political skill, and be able to debate, i'm unsure Gaybo has that in his locker. Nevertheless our leader Michael Martin  supposedly believes that in order to win this Presidential election, we might be better off looking for someone  who is not affiliated with our party at all. So he decided seemingly without contacting or seeking advice from other FF TD's and or members to to ring Gay Byrne, and ask him whether he'd be interested to stand on the FF ticket, albeit it running more like an Independent.  Can we possibly stoop any lower, that we are that desperate to win an election that we'd ignore loyal party members like Crowley, who for months has shown his willingness to throw his hat into the ring? If Fianna Fail decide to support Gaybo, it will guarantee one thing, i'll be voting for Gay Mitchell. The party hierarchy can think again if they believe many other Fianna Fail members will simply stand in lockstep, and vote for someone, who to be honest does not deserve to be considered.